Category: Music

Blogaritaville: Price Fixing Since 1996 Caused CD Sales Slowdown. When the RIAA is trying to blame consumers’ file-sharing ways for slumping sales in 2001, I think it’s worth looking at some other factors. Scriban compares average cost of a CD (from the RIAA’s own figures!) against CD unit sales and makes a fairly persuasive argument.

Of course, correlation is not causality. There are other factors at work, like the rise of lousy me-too bands in just about every segment and the inexplicable resurgence of teen pop (I thought Kriss Kross had been the final stake in that coffin. You remember Kriss Kross—fourteen year old kids rapping “I’m the mack daddy! No, I’m the daddy mack!”).
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Currently playing song: “Rock and Roll” by Velvet Underground on Loaded.

Our out of town friends took Lisa and me to see the next big musical sensation from Newfoundland, Great Big Sea, last night at the Avalon. It was fun, although Lisa confirmed her dislike for going to rock concerts. Claustrophobia is hard to overcome when you don’t like the music that much.
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Currently playing song: “Beyond Belief” by Elvis Costello on The Very Best of Elvis Costello And The Attractions.

Courtesy the Shifted Librarian: The Glass Engine, an online app that allows easy exploring of over 60 pieces of Philip Glass’s music.
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New York Times, Johnny Cash: an American Original Returns. According to the article, Cash is recording his fourth album:

“The songs are coming from every direction,” Mr. Cash said of his forthcoming album. “I’ve written two or three new ones, and I recorded a Sting song called `I Hung My Head.’ I’ve recorded a Marty Robbins song called `Big Iron.’ I’m recording `The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face,’ that Roberta Flack song. And I’m recording `Hurt’ by Nine Inch Nails.”

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Currently playing song: “What is Life” by George Harrison on All Things Must Pass.

Currently playing song: “Cold Turkey” by John Lennon on Lennon Legend.

I just went looking for the original album for this song and found to my surprise that it was from a single by the Plastic Ono Band, on which it was paired with the equally memorable “Don’t Worry Kyoko (Mommy’s Just Looking For A Hand In the Snow”). The latter, needless to say, was a Yoko song.

Currently playing song: “You Are Invited” by The Dismemberment Plan on Emergency & I.

Man, I had totally forgotten about this song until the other day. This was one of those songs that hung around on KEXP forever but no one on the east coast seems to know. Kick-butt song…

I really didn’t stay too long there
Cause no one was having much fun
I made my way to a party all the way cross town
That was thrown by the friend of an ex-thing
I wasn’t sure if I should go
But when I got up in the place there were smiles all up and down
I grabbed my ex in the kitchen
I told her I was sorry I came
But she looked at me with a glazed smile and said
“You are invited
By anyone to do anything
You are invited for all time
You are so needed
For everyone to do anything
You are invited for all time”

…this is pretty damned funny.

But I’m taking my iPod with me. 🙂 I called the Apple support line, and they confirmed that the iPod doesn’t need a wattage converter, just a plug converter.

From “What Good Am I?” on Oh Mercy by Bob Dylan:

What good am I if I know and don’t do,
If I see and don’t say, if I look right through you,
If I turn a deaf ear to the thunderin’ sky,
What good am I?
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What good am I then to others and me
If I’ve had every chance and yet still fail to see
If my hands tied must I not wonder within
Who tied them and why and where must I have been

Currently playing song: “Pride (In The Name Of Love)” by U2 on The Unforgettable Fire.

So finally Moby is ready to release new material at the Olympics. I still find Play a really good album, even if I’ve heard all the songs other places (like “Body Rock” being sold first to “Veronica’s Closet” and “Ali”… or was it “Black Hawk Down”?).

Currently playing song: “Spartacus” by Branford Marsalis Quartet on Crazy People Music.